Vocational Training for Teenagers

Vocational training is used to prepare for a certain trade or craft. In times past, it was limited to such fields are welding and automotive service, but today it can range from hand trades to retail to tourism management. Vocational training is education in the type of trade a person wants to pursue or skill a person desires to acquire. Vocational training programs prepare participants for specific careers. Some high schools encourage/provide vocational training which could be stand-alone courses, certificate/diploma-granting programs, associate's degree programs and apprenticeships.

Vocational training focuses on practical applications of the skills learned. A large part of the education is hands-on training. Vocational training thus provides a link between education and the working world. Teenagers who participate in vocational training programmes graduate prepared to take a high-paying, skilled job immediately. They have an advantage over purely academically trained job-seekers because they have the skills needed to successfully perform a specific, skilled occupation in addition to their academic qualification.

Vocational development programs are an additional way to keep teenagers busy during the holidays. They get to learn about the following;

• Business
• Health services
• Art, craft and design
• Music
• Agriculture
• Food, hospitality & tourism
• Sports & games
• Information technology, etc

Here are some reasons why vocational training is very good for teenagers, especially during the holidays (with excerpts from www.quora.com):

1. Learning style:

There are students who can simply read and understand a concept. Then there are students who want to analyze or research, maybe dig a bit deeper to get clarity in a subject. Vocational training gives them the liberty to learn at their own pace. The point is that every student has a different learning style. Unfortunately, most schools fail to see this and hence, each student is judged on the basis of their exam marks. The holiday therefore, provides the opportunity for teenagers to take up a vocational course which learning style will be beneficial to them.

2. Job readiness:

Vocational training enables participants to adapt to the corporate world at a much faster rate. Whether the training is in IT or a foreign language, it certainly gives their confidence level a big boost. They feel “ready” and would not hesitate to take an initiative at the workplace.

3. Communication skills:

Vocational training will improve their social profile, not because of the content they get exposed to but because of the people they train with. Teenagers will find that they can come out of their shell and can communicate better with people than before. For instance, if they are learning a foreign language, the institute will ask them to speak in that language with everyone. In the process, they will also make new friends and learn under new teachers. It will also help their growth as individuals.

4. Breaks monotony:

Vocational courses break the monotony of studying regularly and taking exams which is what the academic environment offers. But one of the best ways that teenagers can maintain a healthy study habit is to ‘avoid’ having a monotonous routine. That is why taking up vocational courses especially during the holidays in order to get some exposure and to improve their resume is necessary.

Conclusion:

The millennials and the zillennials are growing into an economic environment where jobs are not so varied and available but with vast opportunities in entrepreneurship. Vocational training will empower them to perform successfully in founding and/or owning businesses and contribute profitably to local and global economies. Let's encourage them!!!

Holidaying Teens - Taking Your Hobby to a New Level

According to Wikipedia, a hobby is “an activity, interest, enthusiasm, or pastime that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation, done during one's own time”. Hobbies are known to provide us with many mental and physical health benefits. They boost our cheerfulness, increase our creativity and give us a better ability to deal with stress and other pressures of life.

Teenagers have lots of hobbies, some of which they love to share with their friends. Hobbies keep teens socially engaged with those who have similar interests. The holiday period provides a good time for teens to identify and develop their hobbies. Parents who are concerned about ensuring that their teen is not idle during the holiday can make them join hobby classes.

Whether it be arts and crafts, music, gardening, sports, soap making, bead making, sugar craft, writing, baking, cartoon drawing, etc, there is no dearth of hobby classes during and after the holiday. Such classes will provide the opportunity for the teens to hone their skills.

1.    Music

Music is a hobby that many teens would love to pursue in a number of ways. They can learn to write/sing songs and in this way, learn to express their interest in their specific genre of music. They can also benefit intellectually by learning how to play a musical instrument such as the piano, guitar, drums, saxophone, etc. If the teen is tech-savvy, there are computer programs that allow users to create music recordings and mixes. They can then proudly showcase their musical talents in their schools, faith institutions or local community music groups.

2.      Sports

Teenagers have many choices when it comes to sports activities. Indoor activities include gym memberships, yoga and dance classes. Outdoor activities range from traditional team sports such as football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, etc. Others include tennis, cricket, martial arts (judo, kung fu, taekwondo), or swimming, or mentally challenging board games like chess, scrabble, monopoly, snakes and ladders, etc.

With these, teens can enjoy themselves during the holiday by engaging in one or more sporting activities. Sports can keep them occupied and also provided them the requisite physical, mental and emotional exercise. Apart from making new friends, they can achieve the required proficiency to try for competitions and turn the hobby into a career in future.

Some teens will use the opportunity provided by sports to lose weight and look fit and trim. It has been proven through research that teens who engage in sports improve in attitude and school work.

3.    The Arts

Some teens love solo hobbies and will enjoy unwinding with a good book or gardening. Other teens may prefer to express themselves through creative art, spending time drawing, painting or sculpting. Further ideas include jewelry-making, scrap booking, coin and stamp collection, cooking and baking. For the teens with a dramatic flair, there are opportunities during the holiday to act, sing or dance.

4.    Technology

Some teens like to tinker with technical objects and being tech-savvy provides them with unlimited options for hobbies. Teens can create and maintain a blog on a topic that interests them. They can also play video games, use social networking sites and even build robots and write programs to make them run. They can design apps to provide all kinds of solutions. The Internet provides a world of opportunities for teens without even leaving their bedrooms. They just need their phones, tablets, computers, etc, and experienced and passionate facilitators.

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Colossians 3:17).

Vacation Camp for Teenagers

Sometimes called Outdoor Education, the Summer Camp is an excellent option for teenagers to spend their holidays positively. According to Wikipedia.com, Summer camp is a supervised program for children and teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. At the Summer school, it is usually a required academic curriculum for a student to make up work not accomplished during the academic year, whereas the Summer camp can include academic work, but is not an academic requirement.

The traditional view of the summer camp would be a quiet, serene place where there’s a lot of outdoor physical activity beneficial for teenagers and young adults but over time, summer camps offer a wide variety of specialized activities. For example, there are camps for the performing arts, music, agriculture, computer programming, language learning, mathematics, children with special needs, and weight loss, etc. There are also religiously affiliated summer camps, such as those run by Christian groups, etc.

The primary purpose of many Summer camps is educational, athletic, or cultural development. A summer camp environment may allow children to learn new skills in a safe and nurturing environment. Some camps are non-residential, keeping the teenagers occupied during the day time, but there are others that take them out of town.

Apart from keeping the teenagers busy, these camps also help them interact with other teens and develop social skills (team building, character development, vocational skills, survival skills, etc). In the camps, teenagers achieve significant growth in self-esteem, independence, leadership skills, friendship skills, peer relationships, environmental awareness, values and decision making skills, etc, which have the potential to impact positively on their academic work/increased class participation, personal development, interpersonal skills, technical skills, communication skills, increased trust and responsibility, conflict resolution, motivation to learn,  environmental behaviour, personal discipline, etc.

The Christian Camping Experience

According to www.gotquestions.org, there are many factors that make Christian camping a positive and valuable experience.

First, in most Christian camps, there is an extensive exposure to the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Bible is living and powerful. A typical day in a Christian camp will have some form of personal or group devotions, an evening chapel service, and a Scripture memorization program. This repeated use of the Word of God over a week’s time is very valuable in letting the Word dwell richly in the lives of the campers and staff (Colossians 3:16). God often orchestrates the various times in the Word to emphasize the same themes from different angles or to offer a variety of emphases that will meet different needs in the different individuals.

There is also the opportunity for campers to observe and learn from godly mentors (counselors, staff, and speakers). Many campers come from broken homes or grow up with less-than-ideal role models because one or both parents are unsaved or weak and immature in their faith. As Paul encouraged others to follow his example as he emulated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1), these godly mentors are able to model loving discipline and the freedom it offers. They are also able to show unconditional love, model how a godly man or woman behaves, and display God-centered living before the campers. Commonly, it is God’s written Word that He uses most to affect and change lives, but often He also effectively uses the “Bible” bound in shoe leather—godly mentoring.

A Christian camp is typically sponsored and supported by a number of local churches. These churches commit and encourage their members to systematically pray for the campers, staff, and speakers. God promises that the fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) accomplishes a great deal (James 5:16). God, in His grace, works in response to these praying saints, and it is the campers (as well as the staff and speakers) that receive the benefit of these unseen labors.

Another beneficial factor is what is commonly absent at a Christian camp: TV’s, cell-phones, mp3 players, computers, video games, etc. These distractions serve to busy the mind and keep young people from focusing on the deeper questions of life such as, “Why am I here?” “What will happen to me when I die?” “Does my life have meaning?” While occupied with fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind (Ephesians 2:3), young people have little time to ponder such questions. When these mind-occupying distractions are taken away, campers have the time to ponder the Word in a much deeper way than a once-a-week church experience allows. Once distractions are removed, campers find themselves surrounded by God’s creation, an environment that turns their minds to Him and to the eternal and away from the world.

A Christian camp also provides a place for godly young people to grow in serving Christ, both behind the scenes but also in learning how to share the gospel, give devotions from the Bible, and pray with others about their needs. God not only works in campers’ hearts, but He is typically busy in the lives of staff and counselors as well.

Another major blessing is that Christian camping allows the broadening of one’s circle of fellowship. For many campers, new friends they meet at camp one year, and continue to see year by year, become lifelong friends that they care for, pray for, and encourage in Christ for decades. And it has happened more than once that a camper even ends up meeting his or her future godly spouse while attending or serving in a camp setting. God has greatly used Christian camping in calling out ones to be saved and to serve Him as Lord, whether as missionaries, pastors, or just as importantly, as “full-time Christians.”

Camping is another avenue to keep our children engaged during the summer and to keep Christ in their lives throughout the holiday!!!

Vacation Jobs for Teenagers

Proverbs 14:23, “In all labor there is profit, But mere talk leads only to poverty” (AMP).

One of the best ways to optimally engage teenagers during the long vacation is to get them gainful employment. It may be a full time job, like the ones in an office, a shop or a restaurant, or a part time one, as assisting summer school pupils, volunteering at a crèche or in a hospital/clinic/church/mosque/etc. Not only do jobs make teenagers busy during their holidays, but also help them earn some pocket money.

Getting a job as a teenager can be very difficult and is becoming increasingly difficult because of the declining economy. Nevertheless, parents should try really hard to help get jobs for their teenagers because the benefits are tremendous. Apart from the obvious benefit of earning money and having spending cash, there are dozens of other benefits of teens getting a job. With a job, teenagers learn to be responsible and this will help them in their further educational pursuits and as adults.

Teenagers will learn how to be on time and learn to follow through on commitments. This will help them understand the responsibility their parents have and will teach those valuable lessons that one has to work hard for money which builds a wholesome attitude. Of course most people would prefer to sleep in during the holidays but if you set that pattern for yourself as a teenager, it may be hard to break when you are an adult. Another skill you will learn is how to communicate with all types of people and it will certainly help in your early career and in whatever career you choose.

Another benefit that you will gain is that with one experience, each job will lead to the next one. New employers will be impressed with your CV, that you have started somewhere and so it makes sense to start as soon as possible. In the future, after completion of your higher education, you become very attractive to employers because of the level and varied work experiences you have acquired. Hiring agents especially, cannot help but notice how you have utilized your ‘free’ time doing what many of your peers are disinclined to do. In the end, you stand a better chance of securing your dream job and enjoying a fantastic career.

In the event that you choose to establish and manage your own business venture, the knowledge and exposure you have received in the various work places would become good assets to be deployed in your business. As a business owner, you need to know a lot about customer service, book keeping, sales, inventory, etc, and having been exposed to them, will give you some advantage over your competition.

No teenager, if opportunity arises, should stay idle during this holiday. There is always something to do. Only be diligent and hardworking in order to succeed - Ecclesiastes 9:10a, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (AMP).

HOLIDAYING WITH TEENS

This month and through the next six weeks, we’ll be running a special series on “Holidaying with Teens”. The long holiday (June-September) is that time of the year when most teenagers have just concluded a school year and are preparing to commence another session. Some others are exiting the high school level and preparing to proceed to the university. And some others may not further their education due to poverty, lack of such desire or in pursuit of other interests. All of these will play out during the holidays.

The holiday period is usually characterized by families’ travelling to different locations to spend time with family and friends, at home and abroad; some teenagers and youth engage in vacation jobs/volunteer activities; participation in holiday camping activities; but mostly, there’s a lot of idle time that teenagers will spend loitering around the neighbourhood, watching television, excessive food consumption, and involvement in local troubles, mischief and crime.

This Series will highlight the activities that teenagers can/cannot engage in during the holidays and how they can fit Christ right through the whole time… Trust me, we are going to need Him!

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16

It may look like a time of rest from tiresome school work and teenagers are sure to find house chores and parental intrusion burdensome and choking but being reactive instead of proactive can make your holiday a very miserable one. So, be proactive like;

1.   Going to your parents/guardians and asking them (instead of waiting for them to tell you) what they’d want you to do for them during the holidays. The look on their faces… priceless!!!

2.   Thinking deeply about what you’d like to do during this period – vocational skill, vacation job, volunteer work, camping, travel, etc. Ask around, look around, read the papers, get information and knowledge… this will be like you are in charge of your life instead of having people make their own plans for you because they see you as idle.

3.   Make plans for the future. Yes, the holidays will end and you don’t want to be shocked into reality. Therefore, see about saving some money during this period; keep fit and healthy; make new friends; and plan for your new class, new school, new vocation. Share your academic and career desires with your mentor (and that means, get one) so you are better prepared for life after the holidays.

There are lots more to share the next few weeks and if you have something to share with other teenagers, please feel free to do so, right here. God bless you.